The Prize
by lifethatyouhate
Summary: The older Selphie got, the less Riku was a competitor, and more the prize.


Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, and so I don't own anything associated with it either.

Selphie always saw Riku as a bit of a challenge.

Back when they were young, it was a bit more innocent. Riku was the fastest, strongest, smartest one on the island. When he graced her trio with his presence, she found herself close to starstruck. He'd offer them a race, and she'd exhaust herself so that she could stay close to him, trying to impress him.

When she collapsed into the sand afterwards, he only laughed. "Don't push yourself too much," he told her. "Nothing bad's gonna happen if you lose to Wakka." That was when he was more cheerful. He liked to joke around. He would compete with them. He rarely fought Selphie one on one- felt too guilty, he said. But he would take on all three of them, working on exhausting Selphie by running laps around her, making her follow him, so he never really struck her like he did the boys.

In school, teachers praised Riku on his high marks. Selphie got average grades- perfect with her average personality. She was the smartest one of her little group, of course. When Tidus and Wakka could barely count off on their fingers, Riku was impressing his teachers by memorizing the multiplication tables. He never bragged about that, of course.

He did brag about being tough, though. Sometimes her and the boys, along with Kairi, would gather to watch Riku "whip Sora," as he put it. And usually he did. Of course there were those times- increasing as he grew up- that Sora managed to beat his friend. Got more in tune with Riku's signature moves, learned how to block his hits, knew when to dodge Riku's counter attack.

Selphie knew all this stuff too, if only Riku would really fight her like he did Sora. She _knew _she would beat him. She knew that she would go out at him with her jump rope. He would always strike first, so she had to jump back and then whip, quick, four times. He would fall back, and then she needed to _run_, because he would bounce back up with a vengeance.

But as Selphie aged, her interest in fighting diminished, while the boys' strengthened. Sometimes even her best friends would tell her, "Not now, Selphie. Gotta go train." They were always running off, in fact.

So Selphie built a stronger friendship with Kairi, the only other girl she knew. But this only made her more curious about Riku. It was clear the red head had feelings only for Sora, and yet Riku hung around with the two. She had a feeling he wouldn't torture himself like that…so he really was just friends. Best friends with the pair, in fact.

So he didn't like anyone.

That little realization brought on Selphie's _real _challenge. The older she got, the less Riku was an equal competitor, and the more he became the prize. She began to notice the way his silver hair fell into his eyes, and when he laughed it moved and revealed that he was staring _right_ at her. And he was surprisingly pale for spending so much time on an island, but he had muscles that could top all the other boys on it. If only she could be prettier, smarter, funnier, sweeter, a million times better than she already was than maybe, just maybe, she might be good enough for the boy.

"What are you trying to do?" Tidus asked her one day as she came running out of her house to meet up with him and Wakka, wearing the new skirt she had bought last week.

"What are you talking about?" the girl replied, shaking her head at the pair. With them, she didn't have to be girly Selphie. She could be plain old Selphie, and so she pushed past them with her bag and tried not to stumble on the high heels.

Wakka and Tidus exchanged a long look, but Wakka merely shook his head. Being a little older than the boy, he knew a thing or two more about girls, and he definitely didn't want to get involved in _this_. Tidus, however, didn't know any better. "You act all girly now!" he complained.

Selphie swung around, hair bobbing, eyes wild. _That _was what she was afraid of. People not even realizing that she was a _girl_, the way they did for Kairi. "In case you haven't noticed, Tidus, that's what I _am_. A _girl_. Excuse me for dressing and acting like one!"

The blonde stared at her as she rushed away, running surprisingly fast in her heels. "What did I say?" he asked the older boy next to him, who merely laughed and hurried after her.

But with all of her changes, Riku never noticed. Tidus and Wakka obviously did, and Kairi often complimented her friend, though she just as often added on, "But isn't it a little uncomfortable?" Even clueless Sora caught her and told her she probably tripped because of her high heels. "Don't see many girls here wearing 'em," was all he told her, smiling innocently.

Riku, though? He talked to her even less. When she paraded in front of him, he said nothing, merely staring at his paper. When she got up the nerves to say hello to him, he would just look up, grin, and say, "Hey Selphie." Every once in a while he even said, "What's up?" But the conversation quickly died after that.

Selphie kept this all bottled up inside. All the anger, frustration, sadness, confusion. Because she knew that she would get her fairy tale ending. She just _knew _it.

At first.

After a while, things changed. You can only hold onto such a large amount of hope for so long before it starts to slowly wear away, and wear away it did. When Riku didn't notice her she chastised herself, and when Tidus and Wakka asked what was wrong, she refused to answer.

Finally, she found herself on the island they used to play on, sitting in her little boat on the dock, crying her eyes out. All that she had done, everything she had tried to get Riku's attention, and nothing. All she did was start to get more and more upset with herself, and more and more jealous.

She pulled her high heels off and flung them over her head. "Useless," she called after them, refusing to turn around and see where they sunk.

"Ow!" A voice behind her sounded, and she spun around with this new make-up she had been experimenting with streaming down her face.

"Riku!" she exclaimed, looking at the confused boy who sat in his own boat, holding her shoe nervously. "I'm so, so, so sorry…it's just…um…"

He handed the heel to her, shaking his head. "It's okay. Here you go."

She looked at him weirdly and took it and flung it over his head this time, as far as she could. "I've gotten kind of weak," she said when it plodded gently a few feet behind him, and he grinned and looked over his shoulder to see it sink down.

"Are you okay, Selphie? You're kind of…different," he pointed out, giving her an innocent look.

And she had called _Sora_ clueless. "You know what Riku? I am just _fine_. But I've got to go because I have very, very important things to do and they don't include this stuff," she splashed water over her face and wiped off as much of the make-up as she could, "and this straitjacket in disguise!" She tugged at the collar of her dress, but she couldn't exactly rip _that _off in front of him. "I've got to find my jump rope. And Tidus and Wakka. See you around."

He stared after her curiously as she paddled away, using her muscles now instead of daintily floating away, and she shrunk quickly until he saw her safely hit the dock of the main island, and he saw her hair bounce around and saw her face him, and he grinned a bit, shaking his head. "Good for you," he murmured.

"Tidus!" Selphie shouted at the boy as she sprinted up to him, wearing her good old sneakers, _comfy _yellow dress, shorts underneath so she could run without worrying. "Wakka! What are you guys doing without _me_, huh?"

The boys exchanged a shocked look. "Well, you've been kinda busy…" Wakka rubbed the back of his neck, looking guilty.

Tidus rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you've been acting like a-,"

Selphie lashed her jump rope out at him with a grin, missing him by a large margin, as she had intended. "I know how I've been acting, but who cares? Remember that phase _you _went through with the baggy clothes and-,"

"Ok, ok!" Tidus lifted his hands, grinning. "We missed you, Selphie."

Wakka nodded his head. "Ay, we thought we'd lost you, Selph."

The brunette tilted her head to the side and wiped the last bit of lipstick from her lips with the back of her hand. "Well, dressing up is nice every now and then…but I like hanging out with you guys, natural and having fun a lot more. I just had to…figure that out again, I guess."

"Good," Wakka nodded once again, stepping closer to him as he lowered his voice. "But…what about…?"

"I think it's pretty clear he doesn't like me," Selphie replied, eyes downcast. "But…I guess…there are other guys." It was strange to say it out loud, to think about the perfect boy on the island, the "best" one according to many, not liking her. "Plus I hit him with my heel." And there was that, too.

Wakka shrugged. "Well, Tidus is growing up…" he teased, and the blonde boy turned at his name.

"Huh?" he called out, and Selphie faked gagging.

"Come on guys, I've missed out on three months worth of games. I need to start practicing again, pass the ball over here!"

The next day, Selphie paddled herself back over to her little island. She could almost hear her childhood voice shouting out in glee, could almost see herself running after Riku down the beach.

"I guess things are different now," she told herself, looking over her back just in case the silver haired boy decided to surprise her again. As she had expected, nobody greeted her, and so she headed to the one place where she knew nothing would really change- the Secret Place.

There were drawings all over the walls- evidence of how much time she, Wakka, Tidus and the other trio had spent in there, carving away. Pictures of her and her two best friends looking deformed, thanks to arguments that led to defacing another's artwork, lined up one wall, while the other was mostly Sora and Kairi, with a couple things you could tell Riku had done.

Selphie stepped over to that side, running her hand along what looked like a perfect spot for a key. "Too bad I don't have the key," she mused to herself. "But I suppose what I do have is good enough. Yes, I'm sure it is."

"You sound kind of mature, Selphie," A familiar voice stated, and footsteps sounded as a figure neared. "I guess you didn't need to do all that dressing up, huh? You're already mature enough."

"Not really," she replied, not letting herself believe that it was actually _him_. _I'm dreaming_, she decided. _Because there's no way he would talk to me otherwise._ "I spent over three hours yesterday playing ball with Tidus and Wakka, fighting with my jump rope. I'm a little more mature in some ways, but it's almost like I've gone backwards in other.

Riku leaned against the wall next to his drawing, next to her, grinning. "Good. 'Cause I like you better the way you are, you know. So does everyone else. The way you really are."

"What a waste of three perfectly good months then," Selphie muttered under her breath, avoiding eye contact. "I coulda been…practicing. I want to do all the stuff you guys can do. Even if I'm a girl," she grinned. "I'm just not cut out to be the damsel in distress type, like Kairi. She's pretty and delicate and strong minded, and willed. I'm strong…physically. And none of that other stuff."

Riku chuckled. "Kairi is the perfect girl," he said, and her heart sunk. "For Sora. And she's the perfect best friend for me. But I think _I _would kinda prefer a girl who was interested in the stuff I'm interested in. Not walking around in high heels, wearing stuff that makes her uncomfortable."

"Oh yeah. My little breakdown. I almost forgot you were there," Selphie raised her eyebrows, laughing. "I'm so stupid."

"Why did you do all that stuff, Selphie?" Riku asked, grinning. "What made you _want _to be like that?"

The brunette swallowed hard, emitting nervous giggles. "It's pretty stupid, actually. It's just…when I was young, I wanted to _be _you, Riku. And as I got older…well…"

She looked over at him, only to see he was watching her with teasing eyes. He was definitely going to make her say it. "I saw you in a different way. And when I realized you didn't really like Kairi the way I thought you did…I thought maybe I could make you see me in a different way too."

"What way would that be?" he folded his arms, grinning. Now he was _really _enjoying himself.

Selphie heaved a heavy shy tidied her hair. "Oh, come on, Riku! I liked…like…well whatever, I like you and I wanted you to like me too. But that didn't work and then I hit you with my heel and…I hit rock bottom and I've only risen from there," she couldn't help but grin, as he continued to do.

"Well, it did work. I saw you in a totally different way," he teased, and she rolled her eyes, turning away.

"But to be honest, I've liked you for a while Selphie. You're the only girl I know who could hold her own. And you're one of the fastest runners I've ever seen. And you're a lot more than that. You're funny, and nice, and you're everything Kairi is too, all that stuff you said you're not. You are…to me."

Selphie fought a dopey smile and turned around to look at him. With her newfound sense of maturity, she could keep a straight face in this situation…but with the joys acting like her regular, childish self had brought, she was bubbling as she exclaimed, "I did all that for _nothing_?"

Riku fought back his smile to unfold his arms, shrug, and say, "I guess so. I was actually planning on telling you and then you started acting different…but I kind of had it figured out."

"And you _let _me act like an idiot?" Though she was supposed to be upset, Selphie couldn't hide the joy in her voice, and it was that that caused Riku to break through his harsher exterior and laugh as well, something he found easier to do with the bubbly brunette.

"'Fraid so."

"Thanks a lot, Riku," Selphie laughed, flinging her arms up and around her neck. "I'm not gonna forget that, you know!"

Riku grinned and caught her waist, chuckling to himself. "I figured as much."

So maybe Riku wasn't all that challenging after all, Selphie thought to herself. Maybe she had to go through all that stuff just so she could find that out. It convinced him to talk to her, anyways. And, she added on in her mind, staring at the boy she clung to, the prize she held was worth it.

Author's Note: Okay so. This couple just…I like it. I like the idea of Selphie being cheerful and happy and being able to make Riku feel better. And I like her with him. I kind of like her and Tidus too, and I might do something about those two, but I wanted to do something with these two first, 'cause Riku deserves someone haha. I guess you could say this stuff happens before KH1 starts out. Anyways, hopefully you guys liked it. Thanks for reading! (:


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